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“First I stand there for a second, like, ‘did that just really happen?'”

This Is Uber’s Terrible Response When Someone Steals Your Ride

When Lauren Fernandes, a real estate broker, was leaving a doctor’s appointment on crutches in Manhattan on April 26, she hailed an Uber, and watched from across the street as a stranger got into her ride and drove away.

“First I stand there for a second, like, ‘did that just really happen?'” Fernandes told me over the phone. “I guess what must have happened was, there was another Uberpool, and they came to the same corner, and [were] dropping us off at a similar place,” she said.

She admits that from Uber’s perspective, it looks like she had jumped out of the ride early with the other pool passenger, and was trying to get a free ride: The other person was taking a similar route. She asked Uber customer service to call the driver—who knew firsthand what happened—but they said that it looked like she was dropped off successfully.

“The tone was so rude,” she said. “If you question them, that’s how they respond to everyone? That’s the part that I think is so ridiculous.”